The 2013-24 budget proposal offers new initiatives to boost the sagging upstate economy and seeks to alleviate the growing cost of public pensions by creating a new program for local governments.

The fiscal year starts April 1, and Cuomo is hoping state lawmakers will adopt the budget on-time for the third consecutive year, which would be a first in recent history.

“We have built credibility, we have balanced the budget, we have passed on-time budgets, and the public trust has been restored,” according to the budget briefing. “New York is, indeed, on the rise.”

The $1.3 billion budget gap is nearly double what Cuomo estimated a year ago as tax revenues have not kept up with projections.

Cuomo proposed closing the budget gap through consolidations and cuts to state agencies, including the closure of two prisons.—Bayview in Manhattan and Beacon in County. Overall, Cuomo said he would find $434 million in limiting state spending.

The Bayview prison has been vacant since Superstorm Sandy in October. The Beacon facility, Cuomo said, costs the state nearly $70,000 per inmate a year – more than twice the state standard. The closures would reduce bed capacity and save nearly $19 million, Cuomo said.

He did not indicate how many staff members might lose their jobs.

Aid to the state’s roughly 700 school districts would increase by 4.4 percent, or $889 million. Total school aid would be $20.8 billion. Three percent of the increase, $611 million would go directly to schools and $203 million would be one-time financial relief to help struggling districts.

Another $75 million would be competitive grants, which would include money for schools that expand pre-kindergarten programs and the expand classroom time.

Aid for local governments – cities, towns and villages – would stay flat at $715 million. There would be an additional $79 million for grants to promote greater government efficiency.

Cuomo seeks to address mandate relief for municipalities, who have warned that unfunded state programs are crippling their budgets.

The budget proposes a “Stable Rate Pension Contribution Option,” which would allow schools and local governments to essentially smooth out their pension payments by limiting the growth in the coming years but adding to the cost in latter years.

Cuomo also wants the Legislature to relinquish its control over counties who want to increase their sales-tax rate. Currently, lawmakers have to approve any extension or increase. The budget proposal said would make the issue “solely a local responsibility.”

Cuomo also offers a host of new tax breaks to spur job growth. Among them, he would reduce employers’ cost of purchasing workers’ compensation insurance. He said it would provide $900 million in savings to employers.